


a guidebook for the lost and the weary

by cjones7



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: (no one in a ship tag dies for real), Actually no Graphic Violence, Alternate Universe - Serial Killers, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Dark Betty, Identity Issues, Multi, Necromancy, Permanent Character Death, Ritual Murder, Serial Killers, Temporary Character Death, implied eldritch horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2019-12-15
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:21:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21802849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cjones7/pseuds/cjones7
Summary: If you must raise your lover from the dead having accidentally smashed his brains in while lost in the forest of your own mind, there are the things that you need.
Relationships: Archie Andrews/Betty Cooper, Archie Andrews/Betty Cooper/Jughead Jones, Archie Andrews/Jughead Jones, Betty Cooper/Dark Betty, Betty Cooper/Jughead Jones
Comments: 8
Kudos: 29





	a guidebook for the lost and the weary

**Author's Note:**

> I for one _like _a dark Betty. (Spoiler notes for the dead for real character at the end, also an opinion on Jughead's canon survival.)__

If you must raise your lover from the dead having accidentally smashed his brains in while lost in the forest of your own mind, there are the things that you need:

1: Three Necromancy texts. You may obtain these from: the chapel in the basement of your cousin’s house. Ignore your niece and nephew. You cannot help them now. The second is in your half brother’s office. Do not fight him. You will need him later. The third is stuffed in a secret slot slashed into your mother’s mattress with the sharpest of knives. Do not ask her why it is there.

2: The body of the deceased. Your cousin will help, in the stealing, in the preservation, and in the hiding. She will not ask you why. She already knows. Ignore the pitied look she gives you. You are braver, you will do what she could not.

3: A willing partner. This one you do not kill. You will want to ask your best friend. Do not. She will not understand. Ask instead your old best friend, his best friend, the boy next door. He does not blame you, cannot blame you, but he needs the boy back as much as you do. He needs you as much as you need him. He would sacrifice himself for your boy’s safe return. Do not let him. 

4: A suitable trade. This one you kill. You will make a list of options. People will make suggestions, hand people to you. Your willing partner will offer himself. Do not let him. In your heart you know who it needs to be. Do not drug your half brother at home, it will be harder to hide. Take him from academy, from the lies he’s sold you. Let yourself remember how the boy would appreciate the poetic justice.  


5: Come to peace with yourself. The hardest step, but necessary. A soul cannot live split for long. Killing one half of your soul was not, is not, is never the way forward. Purity and light alone will not help you. Purity and light alone cannot save him. Purity and light alone will not save yourself. Go into your mind, into her prison, and find the other half of you. Find her sitting in her prison, beating her bloodied hands against the glass. Take her hands and soothe her wounds. Tell her you are sorry, tell her the truth. Tell her you no longer deny her, that you accept her as part of you. Sweep her hair back from her face, press your mouth to hers, and let her slip back into you. 

6: A secluded location, big enough for a bonfire. You already have this.

7: Materials for a bonfire. Your willing partner already has this.

8: A knife, ropes, a change of clothes for your boy, a gun, just in case. You have these things, between the two of you. 

9: After that, to follow the directions. Your partner will chant the spells as written, it is why you must bring him. Do not worry about corrupting him. He has seen more than he will ever tell you. Do not think about that either. Place the boys, the men, the lover and the liar on their pyre. Light the flames. Ignore how your fingers itch for blood. That is not why you are here. 

10: For the rest of you life, patience. When your boy stumbles out of the flames, death burned off him, he will fall into your arms, and your partner’s. He will be naked and dazed, but not blameless. He will not speak, not yet. Patience. He will not appear to know you, not yet. Patience. He has seen things and been places beyond your imagining, at the moment. There will come a time you will know all, the both of you, the three of you. Patience. 

11: To run. To run and run fast. You will hear sirens in the distance. Pack every last thing that means something to you into your willing partner’s truck. You will pass the sheriff, you will pass your boy’s father, on the service road. Do not react. He will lock eyes with his dead son, returned in flame, lodged between the two who love him most. He will not chase you, and he will never tell a soul. Point the truck in a random direction, and run to the starting line of your new lives, of your new world. You are irrevocably changed, the three of you all, twisted and melted together, something wholly new, something forged in blood and fire. You cannot stay. But where you go, you will go together, and you will burn brighter than you ever have before.

**Author's Note:**

> Charles is dead for real. I don't actually think Jughead is dead in canon but I'm a sucker for fics that put the romance in necromancy.


End file.
